A Unit on Economics Turns to Fun with Homemade Toys and Proceeds Benefiting Endangered Animals

Ada Vista fourth-graders participated in a hands-on economy unit all while having fun, learning about the design process, marketing, selling, and raising $1,037.80 for the World Wildlife Foundation. The following is the story in its entirety written by School News Network.

If you’ve ever wondered what it sounds like to be inside a toy-making workshop, a recent visit to Jenn Gregory’s art class at Ada Vista Elementary would have cleared that right up.

It was a joyful noise of fourth-graders at the Spanish immersion school as they painted, sewed, and hot-glued toys of their own making.

The toys were sold to parents Dec. 20 as a fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund, an international animal conservation organization the students selected.

Gregory said fourth-graders used design thinking to generate ideas, sketch, and construct the toys they would make. As an added, cross-curricular twist, each toy was given a materials budget of 10 virtual dollars, and art supplies and equipment could be purchased or rented — for instance, scissors could be used for a one-time startup fee of 50 cents, and staples cost a penny for three.

Doing the Math

Dominic Mulder and buddy Miles Holter made sports figurines from egg carton bubbles that could be moved along a pizza-box game board-turned-football-or-soccer field, swimming pool and basketball court.

“One would cost a dollar,” said Miles, “but there’s a coupon to get the first one for half price.”

Amaya Anthony and Aurelia Chabot planned to make a windfall with their fabric octopus-like dolls who are all named Shelly, as in sea “shell.”

“We wanted an underwater name,” explained Aurelia.

The thrifty pair spent $4 to create 21 dolls and planned to sell them for $1 apiece, Amaya said.

Budgeting “is something I resisted at first as an artist, having to think that way,” Gregory said. “But now I love it, because it teaches them to be extra resourceful and to really respect their supplies.”